Afridi has been appointed chief selector of the men's cricket team on an interim basis.
During his first media talk in Karachi upon assuming his new office, Afridi on Sunday (December 25) hinted at the possibility of senior players returning to the Pakistan men’s cricket team.
The selection committee head was asked whether there will be any changes to the batting line-up such as bringing back former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed.
To which, he replied: “Babar Azam said something a few days ago that the ‘workload should be shifted’ which is very good. There are many players who have been continuously playing all three formats and it sometimes becomes difficult.”
Afridi said the bench needs to be so strong that any player’s absence shouldn’t impact the team’s performance. “We have such players who are seniors who have been relegated outside [the team] for many days,” he said.
In his first decision in the new role, Afridi has included three players to the team, including pacers Mir Hamza and Shahnawaz Dahani and off-spinner Sajid Khan.
Talking about his decision, Afridi said: “That decision of ours was good. Our bowlers who we have been carrying for many years such as Dahani, when will we let him play and give him a chance and make him a bowler?”
“And then there is Mir Hamza because we don’t have Shaheen Shah Afridi so we have a need for a fast bowler and I think that boy deserves it and has given good performances.”
He added that the selection panel would have a meeting soon with skipper Babar Azam about the final squad.
“This selection committee has come here to make Azam as good a captain as good a world-class batter he is,” Afridi added.
Calling him the “backbone” of the team, Afridi said the selected committee wanted Babar to be counted among the “world-class captains”.
“We have basically come here to support him, share our experiences and to help him out in the areas in which I think there can be [further] improvement.”
Pakistan’s Test series against New Zealand gets underway on Monday (December 26) in Karachi.
Pakistan’s revised squad for Test series: Babar Azam (captain), Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Saud Shakeel, Shahnawaz Dahani, Shan Masood and Zahid Mehmood.